Archive for April, 2011

TRENTON – Senator Raymond J. Lesniak today presented a ceremonial resolution to Operation Saving Lives, a program created within the People’s Organization for Progress in response to the need for humanitarian aid in post-earthquake Haiti.

“Every day, Operation Saving Lives is making a difference in the lives of Haitians trying to pick up the pieces from the disastrous 2010 earthquake,” said Senator Lesniak, D-Union. “This program has helped to support physicians on the ground in Haiti to treat the effects of dehydration due to water-borne illness or exposure to the elements. Operation Saving Lives is an example of how the people of New Jersey care about their neighbors around the world and do something about it.”

The People’s Organization For Progress (POP) will protest rising gas prices Saturday, April 16, 2011, 1:00 PM at the Exxon Mobil Gas Station located at intersection of South Orange Avenue and Bergen Street in Newark, New Jersey.

This station has one of the highest prices in the Newark area. “We are protesting at this station because it is located in one of the poorest communities in New Jersey and yet it has one of the highest prices for gas,” stated POP State Chairman Lawrence Hamm.

On Monday, April 11, 2011 POP visited Mr. Earl Williams to commemorate the 12th Anniversary of the murder of his son Earl Faison by officers in the Orange, NJ Police Department, to bestow upon him the People’s Organization for Progress’ Lifetime Freedom Fighter Award, and to give him both a plant and a sweatshirt. In addition to POP members, his family was also present.

ELIZABETH – When James Carey learned a few months ago that a 50-cent product in sporting goods stores could save lives in Haiti, the Elizabeth man took action.

Carey received a distressed phone call. His friend, Stefanie Fletcher, a nurse from California, said salt tablets could help thousands of victims of the cholera epidemic that followed the earthquake in Port-au-Prince almost 15 months ago.

“Oh, The Places You’ll Go!,” artist Bob Lampert’s benefit for the People’s Organization for Progress, a Newark-based community organization devoted to racial, social and economic justice, is based upon family experiences.

His traditional watercolors will be displayed until April 11 at Bella Campania Ristorante, 456 Broadway. Proceeds of all sales will be used to purchase oral rehydration salts (ORS) packets, which are used to save the lives of victims of the cholera epidemic in Haiti by stopping severe dehydration, which kills within hours of the onset of the disease.

Donations can be mailed to or dropped off at Bella Campania.

Our Lady of Mercy church in Park Ridge, in collaboration with the People’s Organization for Progress, will ship the salt packets directly to medical clinics and personnel in Haiti who are treating cholera victims.

Hundreds marched through downtown Newark yesterday evening to commemorate the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 43 years earlier, and to celebrate his legacy of defending workers’ rights.

A group gathered on West 3rd Street in Plainfield on Saturday and marched from Grant Avenue to Monroe Avenue in protest of the street violence that has been plaguing the city. Plainfield has already had five murders this year and is on track to eclipse its current record of 15 killings recorded in 2005.